New Year's Day owling

A dry, sunny day has interrupted what has been a mostly wet week.  It so happens it was the first day of the decade as well, which meant lots of people enjoying a walk on the Dyke Trail on Boundary Bay.  The short-eared owls were also putting on a show...at least a half-dozen individuals prowled the marshes.

Checking out the juvenile bald eagle

No, your monitor's not fuzzy. For some reason, every photo came out fuzzy, at every aperture level, and it's not a focus issue. Yes, this is a cheap lens, but it's the same cheap lens I've always used, and today was worse than usual. I'll have to run some tests to see what part of the hardware is at fault.

Christmas owls

Merry Christmas!

At the beginning of December, I came out to Boundary Bay to see if I could get bragging rights to seeing the first of the snowy owls.  The skies were clear and daytime highs were -4, making for some impressive views out to Mount Baker.

It was cold enough to freeze the mid-to-high tide lines to a slushy layer, giving the fantastic illusion of a frozen sea.

Maybe because it was too cold for the voles to come out, or maybe the birds don't like the dry frigid air blowing past their eye balls, but owls of any sort were nowhere to be seen, and only a few hawks prowled the marshes.

Cooper's hawk

Great weather for our dog

Three weeks later, and throughout most of the country, the weather has gotten colder.  Here, on the west coast of BC, it has gotten warmer.

http://www.wunderground.com

The west coast of BC was one of the only places hospitable enough to go birding today in Canada.  The skies were overcast in our part of the world, but dry.

Great Blue Heron

Northern Harrier

Trumpeter Swans

A Northern Harrier, munching on a carcass thrown over a fence by a photographer (not me!)

 And the highlight of the trip, seeing the snowy owls.  The pair were a bit distant, hanging about on the rooftop of a building nearby - one of the last places I'd look - but the best technique to finding rare birds is to look where other cameras are aimed.

The ever-laughing snowy owl

The short-eared owls made an appearance today as well

Still waiting for a hoot

For the second time in my life, I got a good look at owls.  I think I might make this an annual pilgramage, given the abundant birding that's available at Boundary Bay Regional Park.  Last year, I got a good look at some snowy owls and I wanted return with some recently acquired camera gear to get some better shots. I first starting hearing about the snowy owls in December, so I expected they'd still be around this past weekend, but alas, they had already moved on. Despite their absence, and an overcast sky, the air was buzzing with raptors of all sorts.

The road to Boundary Bay Regional Park is lined with telephone poles on one side, and trees on the other.  Just like last year, eagles perched on either side of the road watching the traffic.  The drive in is good preparation for the activity that awaits in Boundary Bay itself.

Owl chasing another raptor

One didn't need to walk far along the dyke before noticing that birds of prey were everywhere.  As pedestrians strolled northwards from the parking lot, owls and hawks pulled aerial stunts, divebombing each other, and chasing would-be competitors off their best hunting grounds.

Short eared owl launching itself off a perch

The dyke divides a wide tidal marsh from farmland.  Last year, it was the tidal side where most photographers aimed their instruments, where the snowy owls sat still on driftwood.  On this visit, most of the activity was witnessed on the farmland, where owls and hawks terrorized voles and other small rodents from manmade perches.

Squawk!

 Just like the snowy owls, the short-eared emit a squawk rather than a hoot.

This short eared landed not 10 metres away, squawking periodically for about 10 minutes.  On the ground, they're nearly invisible:

 

An owl's success at catching prey doesn't go unnoticed. Typically, it would fly off to a more private location, prey in talons, before swallowing it whole away from its competition.  This trip tends to be a stressful one, as other owls give chase to attempt stealing its freshly caught prey.

The owl dance

Despite my initial intention of getting a second view of the snowy owls, the activity of the short-eared owls definitely made for a more exciting visit to Boundary Bay.